A majority of current retail oxidative hair colorant products are based on a two-, three-, or four-component system in liquid form consisting of 1) a developer including water and hydrogen peroxide, 2) a tint base including water, oxidative dye precursors and alkalizing agent, and optionally 3) a further solvent-containing component for mixing with 1) and 2), and optionally 4) a post treatment hair conditioner. The packaging is complicated and shipping costs are substantial due to moving the relatively large volume of materials, especially water and solvent. Powdered product forms, which are prepared for use by the consumer by addition of water, minimize the impact of these 2 issues, and thus provide environmentally friendly products at lower cost.
Powdered hair coloring and bleaching compositions have been known in the art, however, the interest for development in this product form has been relatively modest, compared to the liquid product forms. This has left the performance of powdered form products not comparable to liquid form products. Typically observed underperforming areas of powdered form products include low lift and poor color uptake, resulting in ineffective dyeing of gray hair.
Further, due to the need to stabilize the dye precursors from reacting prior to mixing with water, absent means for stabilizing the dye precursors, the selection of dye precursors is limited to those available in sulfate or hydrochloride salt forms, thereby limiting the variety of shades. Suggestions have been made to stabilize and/or coat one of more of the components in the product, however, such treatment adds to cost, and thus is unfavorable for this product form which is typically positioned as an environmentally friendly lower cost product.Still further, in this product form the inevitable generation of ammonia occurs when the product is mixed with water and the alkali and source of ammonia react. Such ammonia odor makes the preparation process for this product form very unpleasant.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need to provide powdered hair coloring and bleaching compositions which provide satisfactory lift and color uptake to the extent they can be used for gray hair, have the potential of providing a broader variety of shades, and provide less damage to the hair, while being easy to prepare and olfactory pleasant upon use when mixed with water, and having sufficient shelf stability.
None of the existing art provides all of the advantages and benefits of the present invention.